Life in Passing
by Measi
Summary: Learning to love in small segments, by Jack Harkness. A Doctor/Jack/Rose story.


Author's Notes: 

This is for wendymr, by way of the OT3 Ficathon. The requests for this fic were: Jackie Tyler, OT3 romance/smut, and someone saying "No wonder it's bigger on the inside!" Hopefully this will fulfill:)

Many thanks to my betas, thisbirdcansing and whishastar 

1. Chapter 1 2. Chapter 2

He watches them dancing around the console, laughing in that flirtatious way that only lovers do. He feels out of place, yet says nothing, knowing that he's survived thanks to the two of them. Despite the Doctor's teasing, he would like to kiss someone — either of them — both of them. He doesn't care. He owes his life to the two of them.

It sombers him as he continues to watch them dance. How fleeting life is, how he's escaped death not once but twice today. He could have ended up as one of the gas-masked creatures in London, but the Doctor played his magic hand, whisking away the nanogenes' confusion with the flick of his wrists.

He's fascinated by this man called the Doctor, clearly not human based upon what he sees around him, despite the odd additions of Earth junk on the center console. It's like the ship has been patched together with whatever he can find. Perhaps he's some sort of nomad, picking up little bits of civilization as he travels the universe. The ship thrums deep and steady, its shadowed nooks hinting of the mysterious air about its pilot.

This ship is like nothing Jack's ever seen.

The Doctor dips Rose low, his hand splayed firmly across the small of her back, looking up to Jack with a possessive, passionate smile. _She is mine,_ he seems to say with his eyes. Jack breaks eye contact — he cannot let the Doctor see the lust he's felt for Rose ever since he first spotted her hanging from that barrage balloon.

The song ends, and a new one begins. Jack recognizes Johnny Mercer's voice immediately and starts humming along with _Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive_. Rose smiles, curling herself up on the jump seat to catch her breath, watching both men with glittering eyes.

The Doctor takes his hand, spinning Jack around the console to the music.

And then suddenly dips Jack, grinning at him madly. Jack gasps, feeling the pull of something he recognizes from his years at the Time Agency — the delicate strands of Time itself, spinning wildly behind this man's eyes. He can sense it, taste it — his Agency training instantly drawn to the man in front of him who clearly wields Time as casually as if it were a rucksack.

"What are you?" Jack whispers.

"Time Lord."

The mysterious man has become more mysterious.

&&&&

Twenty-first century humans are an odd lot, Jack muses, watching Rose as she takes in the view of Woman Wept. He marvels at her innocence, every place so completely new and exciting, and she never tires of the new adventures. He envies her, using her excitement to rediscover his own love of life, so long hidden under the guise of a conman. He learns to laugh and take time to enjoy life again.

Tonight he watches Rose as she climbs down the rock embankment, kicking off her shoes once she reaches the sand, even though the temperature is falling rapidly. He looks to the Doctor, concerned, but the Doctor shakes his head, pressing a hand to his shoulder, silently asking him to remain where he is.

Both men smile as they hear Rose gasp. The water has frozen solid, leaving a crested wave well over one hundred feet tall in an elegant curl of moonlit glass hovering only a half-mile off shore.

Nodding, the Doctor moves forward, pulling Jack behind him.

The three of them shuffle out onto the ocean, hand in hand, spinning and dragging each other across the ice, laughing as they fall into collective heaps upon the water's surface. With childlike energy, they play among the ripples of ice, teasing, flirting, hugging.

And Jack finds himself falling in love.

&&&&

Rose Tyler is snogging him. He's not complaining. She tastes of cranberry, vodka, and that impossibly long-named fruit from Verusia that he doesn't dare attempt to pronounce. His four shots of Verusian vodka have gone to his head, threatening to upend him if he's not careful. He knows that Rose's balance is not much better — she's matched him drink for drink so far tonight, and is most likely snogging him for the upright support as equally as her desire for sex.

Jack pulls away from Rose gently, turning his head at the feel of two large hands at his waist. The Doctor's eyes are dilated, dizzy on the alcohol he's been downing by what seems like the bucketful. And for the first time, Jack sees the Doctor open — pain, fear, love, joy — all mixed in the eyes of the mysterious man he's now traveled with for four months. When the Doctor reaches for him, kissing him as passionately as Rose had moments before, he is surprised, but finds himself reaching in return, willing to trust this man who has no name and no home.

The threesome keep dancing, weaving between one another to the primal beat that shakes the floor beneath them. They dance within their own small universe on the floor, unnoticed by the other club patrons under the dark, spinning lights. Arms and lips touch fleetingly, teasingly, hinting at pleasures yet to come.

Finding himself sandwiched between them, Jack reaches to Rose's hips in front of him, feeling her shiver at his touch. He squeezes her tightly, moulding himself to her, wordlessly but assertively informing her of his desire. He knows it's impossible that she can't feel him.

"We should go back to the TARDIS," the Doctor whispers in his ear. "Before we can't make it back."

Nodding, Jack runs his hands up Rose's sides, turning her toward him as they continue to dance. Needing one more kiss to burn the magic of this evening into his drunken memory, he tips his head back, finding the Doctor's lips waiting impatiently for his own. He moans into the kiss, matching the Time Lord's urgency with his own.

And then he is pulled, alongside Rose, into the night.

&&&

They don't make it to the TARDIS.

&&&

He stares down at his two friends — lovers — as they explore each other on the grass. The warm, humid night air caresses their skin, making the goose pimples which rise under each other's touch all the more evident under a thin sheen of sweat. He cannot remain an observer for long, planting a row of strong kisses along the Doctor's spine, resulting in a delicious shudder. He feels Rose's hand on his, guiding him to take over her ministrations. As Rose switches places with him, he takes the Doctor in his mouth, worshipping the man who has helped him find where and with whom he belongs, feeling only the adrenaline from love and pride as the Time Lord comes.

Both men soon turn their attention to Rose, gently laying her down in the grass on her back. They exchange smiles as they find the little spots that make her gasp — the little indent between her shoulder and her collarbone, a curved sweep along her ribcage that encourages her to melt further into the grass. They admire each little freckle, make note of each dimple and imperfection in her skin — the little details that make her undeniably Rose. By the time they reach her most intimate flesh, she's already quivering on the edge of release.

It does nothing but stoke her desire higher as she quickly rolls to her knees, pushing Jack back to the grass. Her touch is more aggressive, directed, desperate. She wants him to feel the explosion she has just experienced, her attention going directly to where she knows he'll respond best.

But it's the second pair of lips, finding that tiny little spot on his breastbone, that finally sends him over the edge.

&&&

He hears the sound of the TARDIS motors whooshing, and he runs around the corner, knowing he can't be more than a dozen meters from the blue box. But as he turns the corner, he sees the ship flicker one more time, and then it disappears.

In shock, he tries to validate any reason the Doctor might have to leave him behind. He assumes that the Doctor thinks he's dead. Hell, _he_ thought he was dead until only a few minutes ago. Still, he panics as he looks around, seeing the two dozen piles of grey dust around the room, not understanding what happened here, why he's still here —

And what he's going to do.

&&&

- End Part One - 


End file.
